Las Vegas Raiders: Is The Team Better With Jimmy G?

The Las Vegas Raiders have finally moved on from their long-time QB Derek Carr. They would go on to replace him with Jimmy Garoppolo and HC Josh McDaniels has a familiar face. Will this pairing eventually get McDaniels back to a winning record?

Probably not. Let’s be honest. The Las Vegas Raiders have plenty of talent. You can’t take that away from the players that are there, but Jimmy G. vs Derek Carr is a unilateral move at best for them. Will Garoppolo win you some games? Absolutely. However, nothing about Josh McDaniels has proved he’s been able to be the difference maker in regard to his in-game decision-making. Did he have success in New England under Bill Belichick? Yes. Is anyone doubting his football knowledge? No. But he’s won 8 games, 3 games, then 6 games. He’s the Raiders’ emergency hire after firing Jon Gruden.

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On to Jimmy G. and the Las Vegas Raiders. It’s no shock that Devante Adams was their leading receiver last year. He’s a great talent and can make plays. With that being said, he almost tripled the next highest WR, Mack Hollins, in yards. Of their receiving touchdowns (28), Adams accounted for half of them. So what do the Raiders do? Signed Phillip Dorsett, who has had just one season of over 500 yards. They also signed Jakobi Meyers, another familiar face from New England who is coming off back-to-back 800+ yard seasons, but has just 8 TDs in his 4 seasons in the NFL, six of which came last year. Still, he might be a breakout candidate for LV as teams shift focus to Adams.

Then they traded Darren Waller to the Giants for a third-round pick in favor of OJ Howard. Waller isn’t too far removed from being a playmaker for the Raiders. He hasn’t played a full season the past 2 years and last season was arguably his worst, but a good QB needs a TE to bail them out. Waller had back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons the latter of which he scored 9 TDs. Howard steps in at TE, same as Dorsett, with only 1 season of over 500 receiving yards and hasn’t scored more than 2 TDs since 2018.

The Las Vegas Raiders won’t be a pushover team. Devante Adams and Josh Jacobs are going to shine as they always do. But the offseason moves by the front office aren’t keeping up with a talent-filled division. For Raiders fans, I hope I’m wrong, but a coach with a below .500 win: loss ratio, bringing in players who have yet to reach their potential, in a division that’s dominated by talent, it’s not looking good.